Was our road trip really 5 months ago?? Did I really start this post 2 months ago?? Where does the time go???!? Most if not all of this has been on the bookface. But as usual, I like to gather it all together and put it here. So, come, join us, on our digital road trip!

First stop: Traverse City! We enjoyed a weekend plus a few days at the Krupka household. Here’s Daisy hating the water again just like she did when she first visited there after we got married. Lady doesn’t seem to mind though.

We spent some quality relaxing time out on the porch…

…and then went inside when Carol, Frank, and Violet got there. The dogs really liked Violet, and she liked the puppy cats. Daisy ended up really liking her, because she figured out that Violet’s food didn’t always end up in Violet’s mouth…sometimes it ended up on the floor. Woo hoo!

Pete and Mary played some cornhole (action shot!)

And we went to the Dunes. Everyone else went further down (up?) the dunes, but Rose and I only went to the top as the end of our willrunforbling.com 5k.

Daisy didn’t go on the dunes, but she was still pretty tired and needed to relax.

Rose and Jim, and Daisy and Lady, went off in the kayak. I think this was after Rose threw a bag of poop in a tree…..I almost joined them, but when I sat in the kayak and got water in my pants, I decided to pass. I felt like I was sitting under water. I was fine in the canoe a few years ago so figured it would be the same. Nope. Cold water up my butt. So yeah, Jim took my place and I went back to the house.

Then we took a tour of the winery, where apparently someone like me works. Crazy sign alterers.

Here are some shots from above! People chilling on the patio, and Rose and Fran working on a quilt.

Whose bed is this? Is it for Jeff and Rose? No. I think it’s for Daisy and Lady.

I guess that’s ok, cuz they’re not allowed to ride bicycles or scooters in this building.

Now we’ve moved on to Chicago. After checking in to our Air-BNB, we went to dinner with the dogs at Bad Dog Tavern and Grill. Hooray for places that allow dogs!

The next day we went for a big walk so we could go to Hot Doug’s for lunch. Hot Doug’s closed forever in October. We had never been, but heard they were awesome and closing, so we decided to wait in the 2 hour line for a-mah-zing (sorry, just started watching Happy Endings) hot dogs. It was worth it.

Later that night we met up with some friends who live in the area at Northdown Cafe and Tavern, followed by a walk right down the street to see David Ryan Harris play at Schubas. As a side note, I’m thankful for the Untappd app for allowing me to “remember” where we went.

Next it was off to Sparta, WI, where they make these fiberglass statues. Not only do they make them, but it’s also the location of a fiberglass statue “graveyard.” New Orleanians will recognize the Frostop, and apparently Rose works on all kinds of animals, even fiberglass ones.

Even the dogs were excited about our next stop. But not as excited as Jeff, who got to visit what is *probably* his favorite brewery: Leinenkugel! There is literally not one beer that they make that he doesn’t like. And it also turned out to be their annual “garage sale.” We got a t-shirt and an awesome tap for really cheap. It’s a good thing Rose’s car is so small, or there may have been more purchases.

Then we made our way to Darwin, MN…home of the biggest ball of twine (made by one man), as made famous by Weird Al! And, as it turned out, that weekend was TwineBall Fest! Holy awesomesauce. So we ran the Twine-K, and then went to Twine Fest. They had a parade too, but we had to leave before it started to that we could make it to Mystic Lake Casino to see the Dan Band!

Now, if you’ve never had the pleasure of seeing The Dan Band, or worse yet, don’t know who they are, please, please, look them up. They’re hilarious. And they were performing at a beer festival! Oh man what a day.

We took it easy the next day, and then continued on our journey. Next up was the Spam Museum in Austin, MN. And I’m glad we went! It closed on September 28…but only temporarily, as it’s moving to downtown Austin, but it won’t be open until 2016. Spam Museum.

After spam, we decided to be more healthy, and visited Blue Earth, MN, home of a really tall Jolly Green Giant, who apparently participates in Relay for Life.

There’s a super-tiny chapel called the Blue Mound Wayside Chapel not to far from the Giant. It’s almost smaller than Rose’s car, if you can believe that.

We finally made it to South Dakota, and started off in Sioux Falls, at Falls Park, followed by the Corn Palace, which was under renovation, but still open.

Of course we had to go to the Badlands and Wall Drug. They need more signs for Wall Drug . Daisy was pretty excited about this creature we saw on the side of the road, almost right next to the car.

How do you top that? By going to the Dinosaur Park, of course!

Our last stop before joining up with Rose’s family was a camping trip. We slept in a teepee, which actually kept us pretty warm and dry in the rain. We roasted spammallows over the fire, and met a cute bunny I named Chipz, cuz he likes chips.

The next day we started heading toward Rapid City. We were gonna take one scenic route, but that route had been turned into a pay road. So we took another route, and it worked out great that we did. We ended up in a State Farm commercial! These guys were right next to our car.

We ran into Jimmy Carter when we went downtown, and I gave him a high five.

We found another dog-friendly place, Thirsty’s, and had lunch there (again, thanks Untappd!).

Finally we met up with Bernie and Mary and went to Black Hills Miner Brewing Company for some beer.

Daisy and Lady really enjoyed the back yard!

At the rehearsal dinner for Andrew’s wedding

And at the wedding itself. We had to literally drive through fields to get there.

Again, Daisy and Lady really enjoyed the back yard. We had never seen them play like this before!

Sadly it was time to start heading home. Daisy was tired after all that running around (and probably bored now that we were back in the car again).

We had to make a couple of statue stops. The first one, one of the Marlboro Men, which are spread throughout the country. Metairie had one, until that hurricane a few years ago that knocked out the power and brought crazy winds. Was that Isaac? The second was at a car wash, and was made by the place in Sparta that we visited!

Our second-to-last stop was at Boys’ Town in Nebraska. The cousin of the Twine Ball, the largest Ball of Stamps, lives there.

Our final stop was Rogers, AR, to visit Jack and Cathy. They ended up inviting everyone over for dinner! Hm. Of course there’s no pictures of that. Just dogs….

We thoroughly enjoyed our time there, and everywhere we stopped on this super-mega-awesome trip. It was great to see everyone, and to see so many new places. Thanks to everyone who housed us, fed us, and hung out with us! Don’t forget to come visit us some time!